Why the oil kingdom is in danger of combustion

The biggest threat to Saudi Arabia comes from its own terrorists, says Nick Fielding

In the eyes of Robert Baer, a veteran CIA officer, the outlook for Saudi Arabia is apocalyptic. It is a message Washington doesn’t want to hear but dares not ignore.

Baer spent many years in the Middle East and has drawn on that experience to write a book so controversial that in America, large chunks have been censored.

In Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude, he fiercely criticises American politicians and business chiefs for turning a blind eye to the dark side of Saudi Arabia in their thirst for oil.

American policymakers, he claims, have fiddled and fudged as Saudi Arabia, ruled for more than 70 years by the house of Saud, descends into a deepening crisis driven by falling oil revenues, the excesses of its elite and a growing Islamic radicalism that now threatens the existence of the regime.